“We were also looking at growth and growth potential, including what kind of big name restaurants were coming here. “We chose Coquitlam for our second location because we wanted a neighbourhood that felt homey, where people live and work and are involved in their community,” Felipe explains. Here, just as in steak houses in Brazil (which are known as rodízios), you’ll find passadores (meat carvers) visiting your table with knives and a skewer with various kinds of meat, including beef, pork, lamb, chicken, sausage… among others. These Brazilian restaurants are the only two of its kind throughout Metro Vancouver – both featuring the traditional flavours, as well as cooking and serving techniques of authentic Brazilian-style barbecue. The chosen site for the second location is the diverse city of Coquitlam. The first location opened in 2012 in Vancouver’s West End neighbourhood. But the Ramos family ventured on with a new endeavour: Rio Brazilian Steak House. More than a decade later, the building that housed Samba was sold and the restaurant was closed soon after. “Maurio and I were the only two people involved in the restaurant, and I was one of the first chefs at Samba. “About one year after we arrived in Canada, we were approached by an investor to open a Brazilian Steakhouse, which became Samba,” explains Felipe Ramos, Maurio’s son and a trained chef. With extensive restaurant experience in their hometown of Aracaju, which sits in the north-eastern part of Brazil, the decision to venture into the food service industry here was an easy one. While the family immersed and settled themselves entirely in their new chosen home of Metro Vancouver, there was one thing they couldn’t and wouldn’t leave behind: the food and flavours of their native country. When Maurio Ramos and his family emigrated from Brazil to Canada in 2001, it was with the hope of achieving a better quality of life.

Samba brazilian steakhouse ca